Reserved resource pool assisted access resource selection for small data transmission

ABSTRACT

Wireless communications systems and methods related to the reduction in a probability of collision for grant-less transmissions from internet of everything (IOE) devices while not increasing search complexity at a base station are disclosed. An IOE device randomly selects a first access resource from a common pool that the base station searches to initiate a transmission. If a metric associated with the data transmission is predicted to exceed a threshold, the IOE device also requests a second access resource from a reserved access pool from the base station, that the base station does not search. The IOE includes the request in the data transmission. The base station and the IOE device switch to the second access resource after the base station identifies an available resource from the reserved access pool and the IOE device completes the data transmission using the second access resource.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application claims priority to and the benefit of the U.S.Provisional Patent Application No. 62/133,365, filed Mar. 14, 2015,which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety as if fullyset forth below and for all applicable purposes.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This application relates to wireless communication systems, and moreparticularly to improving uplink communications from communicationsdevices such as “internet of everything” (IOE) devices to base stations(or other communication devices) that have access to a shared commonpool of access resources. Certain embodiments can enable and providewireless communication devices that efficiently use power resources,limit network interference, sustain appropriate user experiencebehavior, and support many numbers of wireless devices in acommunications network paradigm.

INTRODUCTION

Data traffic on networks, such as cellular networks, has grown rapidlyin recent years. This growth has been spurred on with theever-increasing functionality of traditional mobile devices (such ascellular telephones/smartphones) as well as other connected devices suchas tablets, laptop computers, and “smart terminals” such as IOE (alsoreferred to as the “internet of things”) devices. Some examples of smartterminals include devices that integrate sensors or meters to captureinformation that is then relayed to a remote system, such as a centralserver. This can include smart metering, temperature monitoring,pressure monitoring, fluid flow monitoring, inventory monitoring, waterlevel monitoring, equipment monitoring, healthcare monitoring, wildlifemonitoring, weather and geological event monitoring, fleet managementand tracking, remote security sensing, physical access control,transaction-based business charging, and other applications.

Before these devices may transmit any data on a network, they mustestablish a radio link connection with the network that includes alengthy signaling procedure for requesting use of an access resource(e.g., time and/or frequency elements in resource blocks) and asubsequent grant of the access resource from the base station. Theamount of overhead and/or time required to establish a radio linkconnection using the access request/grant approach becomes a problem forIOE devices, which typically (given their nature) are embedded withdevices or objects typically designed to consume low amounts of powerand have low cost. For example, an IOE device (such as a smart meter fora utility) may be expected to last years without replacement or recharge(if recharging is possible).

BRIEF SUMMARY OF SOME EMBODIMENTS/EXAMPLES

The following summarizes some aspects of the present disclosure toprovide a basic understanding of the discussed technology. This summaryis not an extensive overview of all contemplated features of thedisclosure, and is intended neither to identify key or critical elementsof all aspects of the disclosure nor to delineate the scope of any orall aspects of the disclosure. Its sole purpose is to present someconcepts of one or more aspects of the disclosure in summary form as aprelude to the more detailed description that is presented later.

Instead of access request/grant it may be more energy efficient toimplement a grant-less transmission regime. For grant-less transmission,the IOE device directly starts transmission of its data (which istypically a small amount as compared to voice/video/etc.) withoutwaiting for the base station (or other network element) to assign accessresources. To enable this, a common pool having a finite number ofaccess resources (such as frequencies, time slots, and/or codewords) maybe maintained that the IOE devices uses to select one or more accessresources from to begin the grant-less transmission.

Although there may be a relatively low probability of two or more IOEdevices selecting the same access resource(s) from the common pool atthe same time (referred to as a “collision”), situations sometimes occurthat change this probability. For example, IOE devices that suffer froma large amount of path loss (such as caused by being located far from abase station and/or being deployed in a high-attenuation environmentsuch as a basement or other structure(s)) require significantly longertransmission times than other IOE devices accessing the same common poolof access resources. As a result, the IOE device that requires a longertransmission time has a much higher probability of colliding with newtransmissions from other IOE devices that attempt to use the same accessresource(s) from the common pool. While increasing the common pool sizemay help reduce collision probability, it has the drawback of addingsearch complexity to the base station.

As a result, there is a need for techniques to reduce the probability ofcollisions when selecting access resources available in a common pool ofaccess resources for grant-less transmissions in a network, such as acellular network, while not increasing the search complexity at the basestation. It is to the provision of such aspects and features thatarrangements and embodiments of the technology discussed herein aredirected.

For example, in an aspect of the disclosure, a method for wirelesscommunication includes transmitting, from a first wirelesscommunications device to a second wireless communications device, afirst set of data using a first access resource selected from a commonpool of access resources as part of a grant-less transmission;requesting, by the first wireless communications device, the secondwireless communications device to provide a second access resource froma reserved access pool based on a metric; and transmitting, by the firstwireless communications device, a second set of data to the secondwireless communications device using the second access resource aftertransitioning to the second access resource.

In an additional aspect of the disclosure, a method for wirelesscommunication includes searching, by a first wireless communicationsdevice, a common pool of access resources to recover a first set of datareceived from a second wireless communications device using a firstaccess resource selected from the common pool of access resources aspart of a grant-less transmission; receiving, at the first wirelesscommunications device, a request from the second wireless communicationsdevice to provide a second access resource selected from a reservedaccess pool to the second wireless communications device; transmittingan identification of the second access resource selected from thereserved access pool to the second wireless communications device; andswitching to the second access resource to recover a second set of datafrom the second wireless communications device without searching thereserved access pool.

In an additional aspect of the disclosure, a first wirelesscommunications device includes a processor configured to select a firstaccess resource from a common pool of access resources as part of agrant-less transmission to a second wireless communications device and,based on a metric, request the second wireless communications device toprovide a second access resource from a reserved access pool; atransceiver configured to transmit a first set of data to the secondwireless communications device using the first access resource, whereinthe first set of data includes to the request for the second accessresource in response to the determination, the transceiver being furtherconfigured to transmit a second set of data to the second wirelesscommunications device using the second access resource.

In an additional aspect of the disclosure, a first wirelesscommunications device includes a transceiver configured to receive afirst set of data from a second wireless communications device, whereinthe first set of data is transmitted using a first access resourceselected from a common pool of access resources as part of a grant-lesstransmission from the second wireless communications device; a resourcecoordinator configured to search the common pool of access resources torecover the first set of data received from the second wirelesscommunications device, wherein the transceiver is further configured toreceive a request from the second wireless communications device toprovide a second access resource selected from a reserved access pooland transmit an identification of the second access resource selectedfrom the reserved access pool to the second wireless communicationsdevice; and a processor configured to switch the transceiver to thesecond access resource to recover a second set of data from the secondwireless communications device without searching the reserved accesspool.

In an additional aspect of the disclosure, a computer-readable mediumhaving program code recorded thereon includes program code comprisingcode for causing a first wireless communications device to transmit, toa second wireless communications device, a first set of data using afirst access resource selected from a common pool of access resources aspart of a grant-less transmission; code for causing the first wirelesscommunications device to request the second wireless communicationsdevice to provide a second access resource from a reserved access poolin response to a determination that the grant-less transmission exceedsa threshold; and code for causing the first wireless communicationsdevice to transmit a second set of data to the second wirelesscommunications device using the second access resource aftertransitioning to the second access resource.

In an additional aspect of the disclosure, a computer-readable mediumhaving program code recorded thereon includes program code comprisingcode for causing a first wireless communications device to search acommon pool of access resources to recover a first set of data receivedfrom a second wireless communications device using a first accessresource selected from the common pool of access resources as part of agrant-less transmission; code for causing the first wirelesscommunications device to receive a request from the second wirelesscommunications device to provide a second access resource selected froma reserved access pool to the second wireless communications device;code for causing the first wireless communications device to transmit anidentification of the second access resource selected from the reservedaccess pool to the second wireless communications device; and code forcausing the first wireless communications device to switch to the secondaccess resource to recover a second set of data from the second wirelesscommunications device without searching the reserved access pool.

In an additional aspect of the disclosure, a first wirelesscommunications device includes means for transmitting, to a secondwireless communications device, a first set of data using a first accessresource selected from a common pool of access resources as part of agrant-less transmission; means for requesting the second wirelesscommunications device to provide a second access resource from areserved access pool in response to a determination that the grant-lesstransmission exceeds a threshold; and means for transmitting a secondset of data to the second wireless communications device using thesecond access resource after transitioning to the second accessresource.

In an additional aspect of the disclosure, a first wirelesscommunications device includes means for searching a common pool ofaccess resources to recover a first set of data received from a secondwireless communications device using a first access resource selectedfrom the common pool of access resources as part of a grant-lesstransmission; means for receiving a request from the second wirelesscommunications device to provide a second access resource selected froma reserved access pool to the second wireless communications device;means for transmitting an identification of the second access resourceselected from the reserved access pool to the second wirelesscommunications device; and means for switching to the second accessresource to recover a second set of data from the second wirelesscommunications device without searching the reserved access pool.

Other aspects, features, and embodiments of the present disclosure willbecome apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon reviewing thefollowing description of specific, exemplary embodiments of the presentdisclosure in conjunction with the accompanying figures. While featuresof the present disclosure may be discussed relative to certainembodiments and figures below, all embodiments of the present disclosurecan include one or more of the advantageous features discussed herein.In other words, while one or more embodiments may be discussed as havingcertain advantageous features, one or more of such features may also beused in accordance with the various embodiments of the disclosurediscussed herein. In similar fashion, while exemplary embodiments may bediscussed below as device, system, or method embodiments it should beunderstood that such exemplary embodiments can be implemented in variousdevices, systems, and methods.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram of an exemplary wireless communications environmentaccording to embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an exemplary communications deviceaccording to embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an exemplary base station according toembodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating grant-less transmissions according toembodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating access resource pools for grant-lesstransmissions according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 is a diagram of grant-less transmission communications betweendevices according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary method for reducingcollisions in grant-less transmissions according to embodiments of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary method for reducingcollisions in grant-less transmissions according to embodiments of thepresent disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The detailed description set forth below, in connection with theappended drawings, is intended as a description of variousconfigurations and is not intended to represent the only configurationsin which the concepts described herein may be practiced. The detaileddescription includes specific details for the purpose of providing athorough understanding of the various concepts. However, it will beapparent to those skilled in the art that these concepts may bepracticed without these specific details. In some instances, well-knownstructures and components are shown in block diagram form in order toavoid obscuring such concepts.

The techniques described herein may be used for various wirelesscommunication networks such as CDMA, TDMA, FDMA, OFDMA, SC-FDMA andother networks. The terms “network” and “system” are often usedinterchangeably. A CDMA network may implement a radio technology such asUniversal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), cdma2000, etc. UTRA includesWideband CDMA (WCDMA) and other variants of CDMA. cdma2000 coversIS-2000, IS-95 and IS-856 standards. A TDMA network may implement aradio technology such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM).An OFDMA network may implement a radio technology such as Evolved UTRA(E-UTRA), Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16(WiMAX), IEEE 802.20, Flash-OFDMA, etc. UTRA and E-UTRA are part ofUniversal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS). 3GPP Long TermEvolution (LTE) and LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) are new (E.G., 4G networks)releases of UMTS that use E-UTRA. UTRA, E-UTRA, UMTS, LTE, LTE-A and GSMare described in documents from an organization named “3rd GenerationPartnership Project” (3GPP). CDMA2000 and UMB are described in documentsfrom an organization named “3rd Generation Partnership Project 2”(3GPP2). The techniques described herein may be used for the wirelessnetworks and radio technologies mentioned above as well as otherwireless networks and radio technologies, such as a next generation(e.g., 5^(th) Generation (5G)) network.

Embodiments of the present disclosure introduce systems and techniquesto reduce a probability of collisions between communication devices. Forexample, certain features enable and provide collision reduction ofcommunications between different internet of everything (IOE) devicesthat engage in grant-less transmissions to base stations. This can beaccomplished while not increasing search complexities for network-sidecomponents, e.g. at a base station.

To accomplish this, two different pools of access resources aregenerally provided. First, a common pool of access resources which has arelatively small number of access resources, which the base stationsearches. Second, a reserved access pool of access resources which has arelatively large number of access resources that the base station doesnot search. The reserved access pool may be under the control of thebase station, removing the possibility of collisions for those IOEdevices that transition during transmission to access resources in thereserved access pool.

In some embodiments, an IOE device that has data to send randomlyselects a first access resource from the common pool to use intransmitting the data to the base station in a grant-less transmission.If the IOE device predicts (e.g., based on some monitored metric(s) ofthe downlink) that the data transmission will not exceed a threshold(e.g., the received signal strength (RSS) of the downlink channel isless than a threshold value, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the channelis greater than a threshold value, a data size is less than a thresholdamount, and/or an estimated or actual transmission time does not exceeda predetermined amount), then the IOE device initiates and completes thetransmission using the first access resource. If the IOE device predictsthat the data transmission (e.g., some predicted metric of thetransmission, such as time or the other metrics listed above) willexceed the threshold, the IOE device also includes a request for asecond access resource from the reserved access pool. The IOE deviceincludes the request as part of the transmission to the base station(e.g., a flag set in a header) to indicate to the base station that thesecond access resource is requested to continue communicating with theIOE device using a second access resource instead of the first accessresource.

The base station responds to the request by locating an access resourcefrom the reserved access pool that is not in use by another IOE device.This can avoid the possibility of collisions with IOE devices usingaccess resources from the reserved access pool. The base station mayidentify the second access resource to the requesting IOE device (e.g.,with information identifying what resource to use, if the IOE devicemaintains a copy of the reserved access pool for reference or with theactual parameters of the second access resource) in an acknowledgmentmessage to the IOE device. After the IOE device receives theacknowledgment and accompanying information, the IOE device and the basestation transition to the second access resource and complete thetransmission using the second access resource. By switching to thesecond access resource, an IOE device that predicts a longertransmission time reduces the probability that another IOE device willrandomly select the same access resource from the smaller common poolbefore the IOE device has completed its transmission. Further, this canbe accomplished without adding to the search complexity at the basestation (e.g., by adding many more access resources to the collisionreduction pool that is not searched rather than to the common pool thatis searched).

FIG. 1 illustrates a wireless communication network 100 in accordancewith various aspects of the present disclosure. The wireless network 100may include a number of base stations 104 and a number of user equipment(UE) 106, all within one or more cells 102 as illustrated in FIG. 1. Thecommunications environment 100 may support operation on multiplecarriers (e.g., waveform signals of different frequencies).Multi-carrier transmitters can transmit modulated signals simultaneouslyon the multiple carriers. For example, each modulated signal may be amulti-carrier channel modulated according to the various radiotechnologies described above. Each modulated signal may be sent on adifferent carrier and may carry control information (e.g., pilotsignals, control channels, etc.), overhead information, data, etc. Thecommunications environment 100 may be a multi-carrier LTE networkcapable of efficiently allocating network resources. The communicationsenvironment 100 is one example of a network to which various aspects ofthe disclosure apply.

A base station 104 as discussed herein can have various characteristics.In some scenarios, it may include an evolved Node B (eNodeB) in the LTEcontext, for example. A base station 104 may also be referred to as abase transceiver station or an access point. It will be recognized thatthere could be one to many base stations, as well as be an assortment ofdifferent types such as macro, pico, and/or femto base stations. Thebase stations 104 may communicate with each other and other networkelements via one or more backhaul links. The base stations 104communicate with the UEs 106 as shown, including via direct wirelessconnections or indirect, e.g. via relay devices. A UE 106 maycommunicate with a base station 104 via an uplink and a downlink. Thedownlink (or forward link) refers to the communication link from a basestation 104 to a UE 106. The uplink (or reverse link) refers to thecommunication link from a UE 106 to a base station 104.

The UEs 106 may be dispersed throughout the wireless network 100, andeach UE 106 may be stationary or mobile. A UE may also be referred to asa terminal, a mobile station, a subscriber unit, etc. A UE 106 may be acellular phone, a smartphone, a personal digital assistant, a wirelessmodem, a laptop computer, a tablet computer, entertainment device,medical device/equipment, biometric devices/equipment, fitness/exercisedevices, vehicular components/sensors, etc. The wireless communicationnetwork 100 is one example of a network to which various aspects of thedisclosure apply.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, some of the UEs 106may be internet of everything (IOE) devices, and reference herein willbe made to IOE devices 106, though it will be recognized that this isdone for purposes of simplicity only and that the base stations 104 maycommunicate with a variety of different types of devices at the same ordifferent times. More or fewer IOE devices 106 than those shown may bedeployed within the communications environment 100. IOE devices 106 mayeither be stand-alone or integrated within other devices. The IOEdevices 106 may capture information that is then relayed to a remotesystem. IOE devices 106 may have limited power resources because theyare integrated with devices or objects, such as to render those devicesor objects “smart,” and may need to be able to operate for long periodsof time without replacement or recharge, e.g. days, weeks, months, oryears. As a result, the IOE devices 106 may synchronize with a beaconthat the base stations 104 periodically emit. As a result of thissynchronization, each of the IOE devices 106 may only awake atpredefined time intervals according to the beacon in order to decreasepower consumption. In addition to communication with the base stations104, the IOE devices 106 can be capable of linking to each other, forexample via D2D (e.g., peer-to-peer and/or mesh) links. Further, aspectsof the present disclosure may be applicable to other device types suchas peripheral and/or central nodes or peer-to-peer between variousdevice types.

The techniques described herein may be used for a single-inputsingle-output (SISO) system, a single-input multiple-output (SIMO)system, a multiple-input single-output (MISO) system, and amultiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system. These techniques may beused for a non-orthogonal-based system and for other multi-carriercommunication systems. Further, embodiments of this disclosure aredirected to any type of modulation scheme, but non-orthogonal waveformsare used for purposes of illustration. Non-orthogonal waveforms areuseful according to embodiments of the present disclosure because oftenthe IOE devices 106 have only small amounts of data to transmit during agiven wake-up period, and other types of modulation would consumesignificantly more overhead and other resources, prematurely drainingthe battery life of the IOE devices 106. Also, the IOE devices 106typically operate at low power ranges, resulting in less interference inshared frequencies/time slots than would occur with more powerful UEs106. Non-orthogonal waveforms that rely on scrambling codes orinterleaving may be used, for example, where the cells 102 are large anda frequency bandwidth has been dedicated for IOE device communications.Frequency may be relied upon, for example, in environments where thecells 102 have small coverage areas and the IOE devices 106 share thesame bandwidth with other competing devices, such as other types of UEs.

As will be discussed in more detail below, an IOE device 106 firstinitiates a grant-less transmission by selecting an access resource froma common pool of access resources (e.g., randomly). Because other IOEdevices 106 accessing the same base station 104 randomly select from thesame common pool, there is a probability of collision that two IOEdevices 106 randomly select the same access resource from the commonpool. Often, the data that the IOE devices 106 are sending with thegrant-less transmissions are sufficiently small (e.g., a few hundredbytes) that, even with a relatively low data rate, the IOE device 106uses the selected access resource for a short duration (and, therefore,less probability that another IOE device 106 will randomly select thesame access resource during the grant-less transmission). The shortduration may correspond, for example, to a duration during which anaccess collision probability remains low, which may depend on severaldifferent factors such as a number of active devices (e.g., IOE devices106) within an area (e.g., a cell), the traffic pattern of each device,etc. Situations may arise, however, that may cause the transmission tolast longer, which increases the probability of access collision withanother IOE device 106 that may randomly select the same access resourcebefore the first IOE device 106 has finished its grant-lesstransmission. This situation may arise, for example, where theconnection with the base station 104 is poor (e.g., significant pathloss between the IOE device 106 and the base station 104, or the IOEdevice 106 is situated in a high-attenuation environment), an increasein the number of active devices within the cell, and the traffic patternof each device to name some examples.

To address this problem, the common pool of access resources could beincreased to have more access resources available for random selection.Doing so reduces the probability of collisions as each IOE device 106randomly selects an access resource from the common pool. As the numberof access resources in the common pool increases, however, the searchcomplexity for the base station increases as well which becomesundesirable. Search complexity, as used herein, refers to the need ofthe base station 104 to repeatedly search through the different accessresources (combinations of times and scrambling codes/interleavingpermutations as discussed further below) as it receives grant-lesstransmissions from the various IOE devices 106 within its coverage. Thebase station 104 performs this searching because, due to the grant-lesstransmission, the base station 104 does not know when particular IOEdevices 106 wake up or what access resources they select until the basestation 104 receives a transmission. In an embodiment, the base station104 searches by comparing a received grant-less transmission to eachscrambling code or interleaver in the common pool of access resources inorder to detect which particular scrambling code or interleaver resultsin a high energy output.

Because the search complexity increases as the size of the common poolof access resources increases, the common pool of access resources maybe kept to a manageable size, thereby placing an upper bound on thelevel of search complexity at the base station but, at the same time,limiting how much the probability of collision may reduce. To addressthis continuing need to reduce the probability of collision, embodimentsof the present disclosure provide an additional reserved access pool ofaccess resources.

This is illustrated in FIG. 5, which shows a diagram illustrating accessresource pools for grant-less transmissions according to embodiments ofthe present disclosure. In FIG. 5, a common pool 502 of access resourcesis illustrated as well as a reserved access pool of access resources.The common pool 502 has a smaller number of access resources 504 thanthe reserved access pool 506. Each access resource may be a pair of tworesources, such as:

-   -   [scrambling code, access time]; or    -   [interleaver, access time].

A scrambling code is a particular bit sequence that can be used toscramble the data being transmitted to the base station 104, for exampleby multiplying the data bits with the scrambling code. An interleaverinvolves some permutation of the bits of the data being transmitted.These two pair alternatives are useful, for example, wherenon-orthogonal waveforms are used for the grant-less transmissions asdescribed above. In embodiments where the cell 102 in FIG. 1 is small,another access resource could be the pair [frequency, access time] aswill be recognized.

Returning to FIG. 5, the reserved access pool 506 of access resources isan additional pool of access resources 508 that is kept separate fromthe common pool 502. As illustrated in FIG. 5, there are significantlymore access resources 508 in the reserved access pool 506 than accessresources 504 in the common pool 502. As an example, there may be 10-30times more access resources 508 in the reserved access pool 506 (e.g.,16 or 32 access resources in the common pool 502 versus 500 to 1000 inthe reserved access pool 506). This is by way of example only; as willbe recognized, other amounts may be maintained in each respective pool,with the number of access resources 508 in the reserved access pool 506being greater than the number of access resources 504 in the common pool502. The access resources 508 in the reserved access pool 506 may be inthe same frequency band (e.g., where they are either the scrambling codeor interleaver pairs) as the access resources 504 in the common pool502, or alternatively be in different frequency bands. In an embodiment,the common pool 502 and the reserved access pool 506 do not share anyaccess resource pairs in common. Thus, an IOE device 106 that hasswitched to using an access resource 508 from the reserved access pool506 does not have any probability of collision with another IOE device106 that randomly selects an access resource from the common pool 502,because no access resource pairs are common between the two.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the base station 104may maintain the reserved access pool 506, e.g. by keeping track ofwhich particular access resources 508 are in use by requesting IOEdevices 106 at a given point in time. This may be done by metadataassociated with each access resource 508, and/or by maintaining a lookuptable or similar that the base station 104 may check at the time of eachrequest and update when a particular access resource 508 (that isidentified as available after the check) is identified and sent to therequesting IOE device 106 (e.g., either an identification of theresource or all parameters of the resource necessary for the requestingIOE device 106 to use based on the parameters). The base station 104 mayfurther update the status of the access resource once the IOE device 106using the access resource from the reserved access pool has completedits transmission, thereby releasing the particular resource again foruse with another requesting IOE device 106.

Both the common pool 502 and the reserved access pool 506 may bereceived from the base station 104 at some prior point in time, forexample as part of a system information block (SIB). These pools maythen be stored in the IOE device 106, for example in the memory 204described with respect to FIG. 2 below, and accessed as needed. Forexample, with respect to the reserved access pool 506, in particular,the IOE device 106 may maintain a copy so that, when requesting a secondaccess resource from the base station 104 from the reserved access pool506, the base station 104 may need to only identify the particularaccess resource from the reserved access pool 506 instead of a morecomplete set of parameters. This may reduce the amount of data that isconsumed in the acknowledgment (or other transmission from the basestation 104) that provides the requested second access resource 508 fromthe reserved access pool 506, since an identifying piece of information(e.g., a table location identifier) may be sent instead of more completeparameters that could be used without needing to refer to any particularpool. These pools may remain static during transmissions or,alternatively, be updated periodically with information received fromthe base station 104, for example as part of a synchronization message.

Continuing now with the example above for FIG. 1, when the situationarises that the IOE device 106 determines that the grant-lesstransmission will exceed some threshold metric (e.g., the receivedsignal strength (RSS) of the downlink channel is less than a thresholdvalue, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the channel is less than athreshold value, a data size is bigger than a threshold amount, and/oran estimated or actual transmission time exceeds a predeterminedamount), then the IOE device 106 further a request for an accessresource from the reserved access pool 506 from the base station 104,which may operate as a management entity for allocation of the accessresources 508 for multiple IOE devices 106 concurrently or at differenttimes.

The IOE device 106 may include the request for the second accessresource 508 from the reserved access pool 506 as a header in thegrant-less transmission to the base station 104. In particular, therequest may be included as part of the grant-less transmission to thebase station 104 while using an access resource (one of the accessresources 504) from the common pool 502. After the request is sent, theIOE device 106 may continue transmitting the data as part of thegrant-less transmission until an acknowledgement (or other datatransmission from the base station 104) is received from the basestation 104 that identifies (or explicitly includes) a second accessresource for the IOE device 106 to use from the reserved access pool506. Upon receipt of this information, both the IOE device 106 and thebase station 104 transition to the selected access resource 508 from thereserved access pool 506 and continue communication until the data isdone transmitting.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the reserved accesspool 506 eliminates the probability of collision between grant-lesstransmissions of IOE devices 106 that request use of a resource from thereserved access pool 506 while still limiting the search complexity forthe base station 104. This is because the base station 104 focuses itsrepeated searching on the common pool 502 instead of the reserved accesspool 506, where the reserved access pool 506 may have a significantlylarger amount of access resources 508 than those available in the commonpool 502. Specifically with respect to the reserved access pool 506,under the control of the base station 104 (or some other entity that ispart of the base station 104 or another network entity in communicationwith the base station 104) no two requesting IOE devices 106 may beassigned the same access resource 508 from the reserved access pool 506,thereby eliminating the probability of collisions with respect to IOEdevices 106 that request access resources 508 from the reserved accesspool 506.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an IOE device 106 according to embodimentsof the present disclosure. The IOE device 106 may have any one of manyconfigurations for various IOE applications described above. The IOEdevice 106 may include a processor 202, a memory 204, a transmissionaccess resource selection module 208, a transceiver 210, and an antenna216. These elements may be in direct or indirect communication with eachother, for example via one or more buses.

The processor 202 may include a central processing unit (CPU), a digitalsignal processor (DSP), an application-specific integrated circuit(ASIC), a controller, a field programmable gate array (FPGA) device,another hardware device, a firmware device, or any combination thereofconfigured to perform the operations described herein with reference tothe IOE devices 106 introduced above with respect to FIG. 1 anddiscussed in more detail below. The processor 202 may also beimplemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combinationof a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one ormore microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other suchconfiguration.

The memory 204 may include a cache memory (e.g., a cache memory of theprocessor 442), random access memory (RAM), magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM),read-only memory (ROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), erasableprogrammable read only memory (EPROM), electrically erasableprogrammable read only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, solid state memorydevice, hard disk drives, other forms of volatile and non-volatilememory, or a combination of different types of memory. In an embodiment,the memory 204 includes a non-transitory computer-readable medium. Thememory 204 may store instructions 206. The instructions 206 may includeinstructions that, when executed by the processor 202, cause theprocessor 202 to perform the operations described herein with referenceto the IOE device 106 in connection with embodiments of the presentdisclosure. Instructions 206 may also be referred to as code. The terms“instructions” and “code” may include any type of computer-readablestatement(s). For example, the terms “instructions” and “code” may referto one or more programs, routines, sub-routines, functions, procedures,etc. “Instructions” and “code” may include a single computer-readablestatement or many computer-readable statements.

The transmission access resource selection module 208 may be used torandomly select an access resource 504 from the common pool 502, as wellas include a request for an access resource 508 from the reserved accesspool 506, described above with respect to FIGS. 1 and 5. Thetransmission access resource selection module 208 may randomly selectthe access resource 504 for use in initiating a grant-less transmissionto the base station 104. At the same time or at a later time, thetransmission access resource selection module 208 may also request anaccess resource 508 from the reserved access pool 506 from the basestation 104. The transmission access resource selection module 208 mayinclude a request for the access resource 508 in response to firstpredicting or determining that the data to be transmitted will take asufficiently long time that collisions with other IOE devices 106 becomemore likely (e.g., other IOE devices 106 may randomly select the sameaccess resource 504 from the common pool 502 before the IOE device 106completes transmission of its data).

For example, the transmission access resource selection module 208 maycooperate with other elements of the IOE device 106 to determine one ormore parameters/metrics of one or both of a downlink from the basestation 104 or an uplink to the base station 104. In one embodiment, theIOE device 106 monitors downlink information from the base station 104(e.g., one or more broadcasts/beacons/other types of synchronizationsignals) to determine the RSS and/or SNR of the downlink channel. Thetransmission access resource selection module 208 may use thisinformation to predict a quality (e.g., RSS, SNR, estimated totaltransmission time) of the uplink channel prior to the IOE device 106initiating a grant-less transmission to the base station 104. Thetransmission access resource selection module 208 may further comparethe prediction to one or more threshold values and determine, prior toinitiating the grant-less transmission, to also include a request for asecond access resource 508 from the reserved access pool 506 in itsgrant-less transmission to the base station 104 (where the reservedaccess 506 is managed, for example). In an embodiment, the transmissionaccess resource selection module 208 may select/request both of theaccess resources 504/508 (respectively) at or near the same time. Withthe selection made, the IOE device 106 may initiate a grant-lesstransmission using the first selected access resource 504 from thecommon pool. As part of the transmission, the transmission accessresource selection module 208 may cause the request to be included forthe second access resource 508 to be selected/identified by the basestation.

As another example, the transmission access resource selection module208 may provide the first selected access resource 504 for use ininitiating a grant-less transmission without also including a requestfor the second access resource 508 yet, based on a prediction that thetransmission should be of sufficiently short duration that a has a lowerprobability of collision. As transmission starts, however, the IOEdevice 106 may monitor the uplink to the base station 104 and, based onthe uplink quality and/or transmission duration, determine duringtransmission that the probability of collision is increasing beyond athreshold level (e.g., by determining a signal metric, data size metric,transmission time metric, etc.). This may trigger the transmissionaccess resource selection module 208 to include a request for the secondaccess resource 508 from the reserved access pool 506 from the basestation 104 at that point in time in the transmission, for example aspart of a header of the transmission. In this way, the request for anaccess resource 508 from the reserved access pool 506 is delayed untilthe transmission access resource selection module 208 determines thatswitching may be useful to reduce the probability of collision.

In either embodiment, the request may assume different forms, includingfor example a flag (either single- or multi-bit) included in a header ofa grant-less transmission to the base station 104 or as part of the datapayload. These are listed by way of example only.

The transceiver 210 may include a modem subsystem 212 and a radiofrequency (RF) unit 214. The transceiver 210 is configured tocommunicate bi-directionally with other devices, such as base stations104. The modem subsystem 212 may be configured to modulate and/or encodethe data from the memory 204 and/or the transmission access resourceselection module 208 (and/or from another source, such as some type ofsensor) according to a modulation and coding scheme (MCS), e.g., alow-density parity check (LDPC) coding scheme, a turbo coding scheme, aconvolutional coding scheme, etc. The RF unit 214 may be configured toprocess (e.g., perform analog to digital conversion or digital to analogconversion, etc.) modulated/encoded data from the modem subsystem 212(on outbound transmissions) or of transmissions originating from anothersource such as a base station 104. Although shown as integrated togetherin transceiver 210, the modem subsystem 212 and the RF unit 214 may beseparate devices that are coupled together at the IOE device 106 toenable the IOE device 106 to communicate with other devices.

The RF unit 214 may provide the modulated and/or processed data, e.g.data packets (or, more generally, data messages which may contain one ormore data packets and other information), to the antenna 216 fortransmission to one or more other devices. This may include, forexample, transmission of data to a base station 104 according toembodiments of the present disclosure. The antenna 216 may furtherreceive data messages transmitted from a base station 104 and providethe received data messages for processing and/or demodulation at thetransceiver 210. Although FIG. 2 illustrates antenna 216 as a singleantenna, antenna 216 may include multiple antennas of similar ordifferent designs in order to sustain multiple transmission links.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an exemplary base station 104 according toembodiments of the present disclosure. The base station 104 may includea processor 302, a memory 304, a resource coordination module 308, atransceiver 310, and an antenna 316. These elements may be in direct orindirect communication with each other, for example via one or morebuses. The base station 104 may be an evolved Node B (eNodeB), a macrocell, a pico cell, a femto cell, a relay station, an access point, oranother electronic device operable to perform the operations describedherein with respect to the base station 104. The base station 104 mayoperate in accordance with one or more communication standards, such asa 3rd generation (3G) wireless communication standard, a 4th generation(4G) wireless communication standard, a long term evolution (LTE)wireless communication standard, an LTE-advanced wireless communicationstandard, or another wireless communication standard now known or laterdeveloped (e.g., a next generation network operating according to a 5Gprotocol).

The processor 302 may include a CPU, a DSP, an ASIC, a controller, aFPGA device, another hardware device, a firmware device, or anycombination thereof configured to perform the operations describedherein with reference to the base station 104 introduced in FIG. 1above. The processor 302 may also be implemented as a combination ofcomputing devices, e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, aplurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunctionwith a DSP core, or any other such configuration.

The memory 304 may include a cache memory (e.g., a cache memory of theprocessor 302), RAM, MRAM, ROM, PROM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory, asolid state memory device, one or more hard disk drives, other forms ofvolatile and non-volatile memory, or a combination of different types ofmemory. In an embodiment, the memory 304 includes a non-transitorycomputer-readable medium. The memory 304 may store instructions 306. Theinstructions 306 may include instructions that, when executed by theprocessor 302, cause the processor 302 to perform the operationsdescribed herein with reference to the base station 104 in connectionwith embodiments of the present disclosure. Instructions 306 may also bereferred to as code, which may be interpreted broadly to include anytype of computer-readable statement(s) as discussed above with respectto FIG. 2.

The resource coordination module 308 may operate to search all of thescrambling codes, interleaver permutations, and/or frequenciesmaintained by the common pool 502 (e.g., a copy of which is stored inthe memory 304 that matches the common pool 502 stored at the IOEdevices 106) periodically or continuously to attempt to identify datastreams that arrive from one or more IOE devices 106. According toembodiments of the present disclosure, the common pool 502 is kept to arelatively small size so as to limit the search complexity (andcorresponding computing resources utilization) imposed on the basestation 104. As noted previously, the search module 308 focuses itssearching on the common pool 502 and does not search the reserved accesspool 506.

The resource coordination module 308 may also operate to search andidentify access resources 508 in the reserved access pool 506 responsiveto requests from IOE devices 106. To assist in doing so, the resourcecoordination module 308 may also track the use of access resources 508,for example by way of metadata tracking, lookup table, or other type ofdatabase to name just a few examples. As described above, the resourcecoordination module 308 may track which access resources 508 from thereserved access pool 506 are in use and therefore cannot be identifiedin response to a new request. Further, the resource coordination module308 may provide the identification (and/or other specific parameters fora selected access resource) to the processor 302 for inclusion in atransmission and update the system of the now-unavailable status forthat selected access resource. Once the transmission is completed (ortimed out, as will be recognized), the resource coordination module 308may update its tracking information so that the particular accessresource 308 is again available for selection responsive to a differentrequest.

The transceiver 310 may include a modem subsystem 312 and a radiofrequency (RF) unit 314. The transceiver 310 is configured tocommunicate bi-directionally with other devices, such as IOE devices 106(and other types of UEs 106). The modem subsystem 312 may be configuredto modulate and/or encode data according to a MCS, some examples ofwhich have been listed above with respect to FIG. 2. The RF unit 314 maybe configured to process (e.g., perform analog to digital conversion ordigital to analog conversion, etc.) of modulated/encoded data from themodem subsystem 312 (on outbound transmissions) or of transmissionsoriginating from another source, such as an IOE device 106. Althoughshown as integrated together in transceiver 310, the modem subsystem 312and the RF unit 314 may be separate devices that are coupled together atthe base station 104 to enable the base station 104 to communicate withother devices.

The RF unit 314 may provide the modulated and/or processed data, e.g.data packets, to the antenna 316 for transmission to one or more otherdevices such as IOE devices 106. The modem subsystem 312 may modulateand/or encode the data in preparation for transmission. The RF unit 314may receive the modulated and/or encoded data packet and process thedata packet prior to passing it on to the antenna 316. This may include,for example, transmission of data messages to IOE devices 106 or toanother base station 104, according to embodiments of the presentdisclosure. The antenna 316 may further receive data messagestransmitted from IOE devices 106 and/or other UEs 106, and provide thereceived data messages for processing and/or demodulation at thetransceiver 310. Although FIG. 3 illustrates antenna 316 as a singleantenna, antenna 316 may include multiple antennas of similar ordifferent designs in order to sustain multiple transmission links.

FIG. 4 is a diagram 400 illustrating grant-less transmissions accordingto embodiments of the present disclosure. FIG. 4 illustrates fourdifferent IOE devices 106—IOE device 406 (user 1), IOE device 408 (user2), IOE device 410 (user 3), and IOE device 412 (user 4) that initiategrant-less transmissions to a base station 104. As will be recognized,the four IOE devices shown are for ease in simplicity ofillustration—more or fewer may initiate grant-less transmissions atgiven points in time according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

As shown in FIG. 4, a synchronization message 402 a is transmitted froma base station 104 (e.g., a beacon) that the IOE devices 406-412periodically wake up and synchronize with. In FIG. 4, each of the IOEdevices 406-412 has data to transmit. After synchronization, each of theIOE devices 406-412 randomly selects an access resource 504 from thecommon pool 502. As each access resource 504 has an access timeassociated with it, each IOE device 406-412 may initiate its particulartransmission at a different time.

For example, IOE devices 406 and 408 start their grant-lesstransmissions at access time 404 a, due to each randomly selectingaccess resources 504 that have the same access time 404 a. Since eachIOE device 406 and 408 randomly select access resources 504, there issome probability that each will select the same access resource but alsosome probability that they will not. Thus, although each IOE device 406and 408 selected access resources 504 that had the same access time,they may still have randomly selected different access resources 504with respect to the particular scrambling code or interleaverpermutation associated with the access time.

Continuing with the example of FIG. 4, IOE device 410 starts itsgrant-less transmission at access time 404 b, due to randomly selectingan access resource 504 from the common pool 502 that has the access time404 b. Further, IOE device 412 starts its grant-less transmission ataccess time 404 c, due to randomly selecting an access resource 504 fromthe common pool 502 that has the access time 404 c. As illustrated inFIG. 4, the total transmission times for IOE devices 406-410 is longerthan the total transmission time for IOE device 412.

Looking at IOE device 406 as a specific example, prior to initiatingtransmission the IOE device 406 may have already predicted that atransmission metric for the transmission would exceed a predeterminedthreshold (e.g., based on RSS, SNR, data size, bit rate, such asestimated for the uplink from a downlink measurement, and/or a totaltransmission time to name just a few examples). As such, the IOE device406 may include a request for identification/selection of a secondaccess resource 508 from the reserved access pool 506 from the basestation 104. The IOE device 406 may request the second access resourcefrom the reserved access pool 506 after or at approximately the sametime of selection of the access resource 504. With the transmissioninitiated at access time 404 a, the IOE device 406 may have included aspart of its data the request for the base station 104 to identify asecond access resource 508 that the IOE device 106 switch to using. Thebase station 104 can respond with an acknowledgment that includes anidentification of a second access resource 508 from the reserved accesspool 506. As a result, the base station 104 and the IOE device 406communicate briefly using the first access resource 504 but then switchto the second access resource 508 after the acknowledgment to continuetransmitting the data to the base station 104 until completion. In anembodiment, the IOE device 106 and the base station 104 switch to thesecond access resource 508 after the acknowledgment is received. Inanother embodiment, either the IOE device 106 or the base station 104may specify a particular number of subframes and/or period of time towait before switching.

Looking now at the IOE device 412 as another specific example with ashorter transmission time, prior to initiating transmission the IOEdevice 412 may have already predicted that a transmission metric wouldnot exceed a threshold. As a result, the IOE device 412 may initiate andcomplete the grant-less transmission of its data using just the selectedaccess resource 504 from the common pool 502.

As another example, the IOE device 410 may initially predict (e.g.,based on some measured quality of its downlink from the base station 104and/or amount of data to be transmitted) that the uplink would notexceed a predetermined threshold and, therefore, not include a requestfor a second access resource 508 from the reserved access pool 506maintained by the base station 104. However, as the transmissioncommences, the IOE device 408 may determine that there is an asymmetrybetween the downlink and uplink, such that the transmission via theuplink is taking longer than predicted (and/or desired), increasing theprobability of a collision with another IOE device 106 that maysubsequently wake up and randomly select the same access resource 504from the common pool 502. As a result, the IOE device 410 may, upon thisdetermination, include a request at the current stage of thetransmission to request a second access resource 508 from the reservedaccess pool 506 from the base station 104. The IOE device 410 may thenswitch during the transmission to the second access resource 508 uponreceipt of an acknowledgement from the base station 104 identifying asecond access resource 508 (and, in some embodiments, after a specifiednumber of subframes or time), thereby again reducing the probability ofa collision as the transmission is completed.

An exemplary communications flow that further illustrates the examplesin FIG. 4 is shown in FIG. 6, which illustrates a diagram of grant-lesstransmission communications between an IOE device 106 and a base station104 according to embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown, FIG. 6illustrates communications after the IOE device 106 has received asynchronization message 402 (and after receiving a SIB that containedthe common pool 502 and reserved access pool 506).

To begin a grant-less communication, the IOE device 106 randomly selectsat action 602 the i^(th) access resource 504 from among the accessresources 504 in the common pool 502. The IOE device 106 initiates thegrant-less communication with the base station 104 at action 604 usingthe selected access resource 504 i (e.g., starting with frames 0, 1, . .. etc.). If the amount of data to be transmitted is small and/or theuplink has sufficient quality, the transmission of the data takes asmall enough amount of time that the IOE device 106 completes thegrant-less transmission using the selected access resource 504 i withoutswitching to a second access resource 508 from the reserved access pool506.

The amount of data to be transmitted may be larger and/or the uplinkquality poor enough that transmission of the data may take more timeand, therefore, increase the probability of collision. In embodimentswhere the IOE device 106 predicts that this will occur prior toinitiating the grant-less transmission, the IOE device 106 may alsoinclude a request for a second access resource 508 that is transmittedwith the data to the base station 104 at action 604.

After the base station 104 receives the transmission that includes therequest for a second access resource 508, the base station 104 checksthe reserved access pool 506 for available access resources 508, such asaccess resource 508 q (as an example) at action 606. The searching maybe of the pool itself or of one or more associated tracking mechanisms(e.g., metadata, table, linked list, database, etc.). During this time,the IOE device 106 continues transmitting data in subframes using theaccess resource 504 i. With the access resource 508 q selected, the basestation 104 may transmit an acknowledgement or other message to the IOEdevice 106 that identifies (or provides all necessary details about sothat the IOE device 106 does not need to do anything more than implementthe details in the message) the access resource 508 q as reserved andavailable for the IOE device 106 to use for continuing the transmission.

The base station 104 at action 608 switches to using the second selectedaccess resource 508 q at the same time as the IOE device 106. The IOEdevice 106 then continues the transmission using the second selectedaccess resource 508 q until the transmission is complete. As a result,the probability of collision between IOE devices 106 selecting the sameaccess resource 504 from the common pool 502 is eliminated (since thesecond access resource 508 q is reserved for the IOE device 106 and isnot selected for use by any other IOE devices during that time), whilealso preventing the common pool 502 from being so large as to impose anexcess burden in terms of search complexity at the base station 104.

As an alternative example, in embodiments where the IOE device 106 doesnot predict that collision is more likely to occur (e.g., based on apredicted transmission time or other transmission metric exceeding apredetermined threshold) prior to initiating a grant-less transmission,embodiments of the present disclosure may still be realized. Forexample, as the transmission commences using the access resource 504 iwithout having also requested a second access resource 508 from thereserved access pool 506, the IOE device 106 may monitor the uplinkand/or transmission time and compare the metric to a threshold. If thethreshold is exceeded, or is predicted to be exceeded based on changinginformation of the uplink and/or transmission time, the IOE device 106may then proceed with requesting the second access resource 508.

Once the determination is made to request the second access resource508, the IOE device 106 may include the request with the current datasegment being transmitted to the base station 104. Upon receiving anacknowledgement from the base station 104 (e.g., as part of action 606)that identifies a selected access resource 508 q from the reservedaccess pool 506, the base station 104 and the IOE device 106 may switchto the second access resource 508 q as described above.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary method 700 for reducingcollisions in grant-less transmissions according to embodiments of thepresent disclosure. The method 700 may be implemented in the IOE device106. The method 700 will be described with respect to a single IOEdevice 106 for simplicity of discussion, though it will be recognizedthat the aspects described herein may be applicable to a plurality ofIOE devices 106, including a network of IOE devices. It is understoodthat additional method blocks can be provided before, during, and afterthe blocks of method 700, and that some of the blocks described can bereplaced or eliminated for other embodiments of the method 700.

At block 702, prior to the initiation of a grant-less transmission, theIOE device 106 predicts a transmission metric for the uplink. Forexample, IOE device 106 may use a transmission access resource selectionmodule 208 in cooperation with other elements of the IOE device 106 todetermine one or more parameters/metrics of a downlink from the basestation 104. This may include, for example, monitoring downlinkinformation from the base station 104 (e.g., one or morebroadcasts/beacons/other types of synchronization signals) to determinethe RSS, SNR, bit rate, etc. of the downlink. The IOE device 106 may usethis information to predict one or more transmission metrics for theuplink, including for example predicting an estimated transmission timebased on the data size and predicted uplink metrics (or measureddownlink metrics). In addition or in the alternative, the IOE device 106may analyze the size of data to be transmitted as the transmissionmetric.

At block 704, the IOE device 106 randomly selects a first accessresource 504 from the common pool of access resources 502. The IOEdevice 106 uses this first access resource 504 when it beginstransmitting its data.

At decision block 706, the IOE device 106 determines whether thepredicted transmission metric exceeds a threshold (which may involve avalue above the threshold or below the threshold, depending on thethreshold type). For example, the IOE device 106 may compare thepredicted metric against one or more threshold values to assist indetermining whether it may be useful to transition from the first accessresource 504 from the common pool 502 to a second access resource 508from the reserved access pool 506 during the transmission. For example,the threshold may be a RSS threshold, a SNR threshold, a bit ratethreshold, a data size threshold, and/or a predicted transmission timethreshold to name just a few examples.

If, as a result of the decision block 706, it is determined that thepredicted metric exceeds the threshold, the method 700 proceeds to block708. At block 708, the IOE device 106 requests a second access resource508 from the reserved access pool 506, which as described above can besignificantly larger than the common pool 502. In an embodiment, the IOEdevice 106 may include the request in the transmission at a beginning ofthe transmission or sometime thereafter.

At block 710, the IOE device 106 initiates a grant-less transmissionwith the base station 104 using the first access resource 504 that wasselected at block 704. If it is determined, at step 706, that thepredicted metric exceeds or will exceed the threshold, then thegrant-less transmission at block 710 can include the request to the basestation 104 (from block 708) to provide a second access resource 508. Ifit is determined, at block 706, that the predicted metric does notexceed or will not exceed the threshold, then the method 700 can proceedto block 710 without generating a request for a second access resource508 from the reserved access pool 506 (block 708). As a result, block708 can be skipped.

At decision block 712, if a second access resource 508 is requested(and, therefore, a switch is planned), then the method 700 proceeds todecision block 714.

At decision block 714, the IOE device 106 determines whether the it hasreceived an acknowledgement (or other type of transmission suitable forthe purpose) from the base station 104 that includes an identificationof the second access resource 508 for the IOE device 106 to subsequentlyuse for the rest of the data of the transmission. If the IOE device 106has not received an acknowledgement (or related message) yet, thenmethod 700 returns to block 710 to continue transmitting the data. Ifthe IOE device 106 has received the acknowledgment, then the method 700proceeds to block 716.

At block 716, the IOE device 106 switches to the second access resource508 (at the same subframe as the base station 104, as specified in theacknowledgement or otherwise).

At block 718, the IOE device 106 continues transmitting the data usingthe second access resource 508 instead of the first access resource 504.The IOE device 106 can continue transmitting the data using the secondaccess resource 508 until the transmission is completed.

Returning to decision block 712, if no switch is planned, the method 700proceeds either to optional block 720 or to block 724. At block 724, theIOE device 106 finishes transmitting the data using the first accessresource 504. This may occur, for example, because the amount of data issmall and/or the transmission time (based on uplink quality and/or datasize, for example) does not exceed a time threshold and, therefore, doesnot have an increasing probability of collision as occurs withtransmissions that take longer.

Focusing now on the optional block 720, it is also possible that duringtransmission using the first access resource 504, the IOE device 106 maystill determine (dynamically, during the transmission) that sometransmission metric (or multiple metrics) has or is predicted to exceedone or more thresholds. Thus, at block 720 the IOE device 106 determinesa transmission metric. To do so, the IOE device 106 may monitor theuplink to the base station 104 and, based on the uplink quality and/ortransmission duration, determine one or more transmission metrics suchas those described at block 702.

At optional decision block 722, the IOE device 106 determines whetherthe measured (or predicted/calculated) metric exceeds the threshold,similar to the description above with respect to decision block 706. Inthis manner, the IOE device 106 determines whether during transmissionthe metric (and, indirectly, the probability of collision) hastransitioned (or is predicted to transition) beyond a threshold level(e.g., by determining a signal metric, data size metric, transmissiontime metric, etc.).

If the metric exceeds (or is now predicted to exceed) the threshold,then the method 700 proceeds to block 708 where the IOE device 106requests a second access resource 508 from the reserved access pool 506from the base station 104 and proceeds as described above with respectto blocks 708-712 and so on.

Returning to optional decision block 722, if the metric does not exceed(or is not predicted to exceed) the threshold, then the method 700proceeds to block 724 that operates as described above.

As a result of the above, the probability of a collision issignificantly reduced (and eliminated when using the reserved accesspool 506) because of the larger pool of available access resources inthe reserved access pool 506 compared to the number of available accessresources in the common pool 502. Further, this is accomplished withoutsignificantly adding to the search complexity at the base station 104,because the base station 104 still searches the common pool 502, withoutincluding the reserved access pool 506, where the common pool 502 hasnot been expanded.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary method 800 for reducingcollisions in grant-less transmissions according to embodiments of thepresent disclosure. The method 800 may be implemented in the basestation 104. The method 800 will be described with respect to a singlebase station 104 in communication with a single IOE device 106 forsimplicity of discussion, though it will be recognized that the aspectsdescribed herein may be applicable to a plurality of IOE devices 106and/or base stations 104. It is understood that additional method blockscan be provided before, during, and after the blocks of method 800, andthat some of the blocks described can be replaced or eliminated forother embodiments of the method 800.

At block 802, the base station 104 receives a grant-less transmissionfrom an IOE device 106 using a first access resource. As described withrespect to the various figures above, the IOE device 106 randomlyselects the first access resource 504 from the common pool 502, wherethe base station 104 may have previously transmitted the common pool 502(and a copy of the reserved access pool 506) at some prior point intime, for example as part of a system information block (SIB).

At block 804, the base station 104 searches the common pool 502 in orderto identify the first access resource 504 from common pool 502 used totransmit the data (and, thereby, to be able to process thetransmission). According to embodiments of the present disclosure, thenumber of access resources in the common pool 502 is kept to amanageable amount so as to prevent the search complexity from increasingfor the base station 104. The base station 104 performs this searchingbecause, due to the grant-less transmission, the base station 104 doesnot know when particular IOE devices 106 wake up or what accessresources they select until the base station 104 receives atransmission. In an embodiment, the base station 104 searches bycomparing a received grant-less transmission to each scrambling code orinterleaver in the common pool of access resources in order to detectwhich particular scrambling code or interleaver results in a high energyoutput.

At decision block 806, the base station 104 determines whether a requestfor a second access resource 508 from the reserved access pool 506 wasincluded in the transmission from the IOE device 106.

If a request was included, then the method 800 proceeds to block 808where the base station 104 analyzes the reserved access pool 506 toidentify an available access resource 508 that the IOE device 106 mayuse. If a request was not included, then the method 800 proceeds todecision block 818, where the base station determines whether the datatransmission has completed. If the data transmission has not completed,then the method 800 returns to block 802 to continue receiving thegrant-less transmission and proceeds as described above (and furtherbelow). If, instead, the data transmission has completed then the method800 proceeds to block 816 and ends.

Returning to block 808, the method 800 proceeds to block 810. At block810, the base station 104 sends an acknowledgement to the requesting IOEdevice 106 with an identification of the selected second access resource508 that the IOE device 106 may use to continue the current transmissionwithout further risk of collision from other grant-less transmissions.The acknowledgement may include an identifier that the IOE device 106may use to locate the identified access resource 508 from its local copyof the reserved access pool 506. Alternatively, the acknowledgement mayinclude sufficient information about the selected access resource 508that the IOE device 106 may be able to begin communicating using thatresource without reference to a local copy of the reserved access pool506. In another embodiment, the base station 104 (or the IOE device 106)may additionally specify a delay (a number of frames or period of time,for example) before switching to the second access resource 508.

At block 812, the base station 104 switches to the second accessresource 508 identified in the acknowledgement (or other message).

At block 814, the base station 104 continues receiving data in thetransmission using the second access resource 508 until the transmissionis completed, at which point the method 800 proceeds to block 816 andends.

As a result of the above, the base station 104 avoids further additionsto search complexity because the common pool 502 is kept to a manageablesize, while the probability of collision is significantly reduced (andeliminated when using the reserved access pool 506) because of thelarger pool of available access resources in the reserved access pool506 (that the base station 104 does not search) compared to the numberof available access resources in the common pool 502.

Information and signals may be represented using any of a variety ofdifferent technologies and techniques. For example, data, instructions,commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may bereferenced throughout the above description may be represented byvoltages, currents, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles,optical fields or particles, or any combination thereof.

The various illustrative blocks and modules described in connection withthe disclosure herein may be implemented or performed with ageneral-purpose processor, a DSP, an ASIC, an FPGA or other programmablelogic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardwarecomponents, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functionsdescribed herein. A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor,but in the alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor,controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also beimplemented as a combination of computing devices (e.g., a combinationof a DSP and a microprocessor, multiple microprocessors, one or moremicroprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other suchconfiguration).

The functions described herein may be implemented in hardware, softwareexecuted by a processor, firmware, or any combination thereof. Ifimplemented in software executed by a processor, the functions may bestored on or transmitted over as one or more instructions or code on acomputer-readable medium. Other examples and implementations are withinthe scope of the disclosure and appended claims. For example, due to thenature of software, functions described above can be implemented usingsoftware executed by a processor, hardware, firmware, hardwiring, orcombinations of any of these. Features implementing functions may alsobe physically located at various positions, including being distributedsuch that portions of functions are implemented at different physicallocations.

Also, as used herein, including in the claims, “or” as used in a list ofitems (for example, a list of items prefaced by a phrase such as “atleast one of” or “one or more of”) indicates an inclusive list suchthat, for example, a list of [at least one of A, B, or C] means A or Bor C or AB or AC or BC or ABC (i.e., A and B and C). It is alsocontemplated that the features, components, actions, and/or stepsdescribed with respect to one embodiment may be structured in differentorder than as presented herein and/or combined with the features,components, actions, and/or steps described with respect to otherembodiments of the present disclosure.

Embodiments of the present disclosure include a computer-readable mediumhaving program code recorded thereon, the program code comprising codefor causing a first wireless communications device to transmit, to asecond wireless communications device, a first subset of data using afirst access resource selected from a common pool of access resources aspart of a grant-less transmission. The program code further comprisescode for causing the first wireless communications device to request thesecond wireless communications device to provide a second accessresource from a reserved access pool in response to a determination thatthe grant-less transmission exceeds a threshold. The program codefurther comprises code for causing the first wireless communicationsdevice to transmit a second subset of the data to the second wirelesscommunications device using the second access resource aftertransitioning to the second access resource.

The computer-readable medium further includes code for causing the firstwireless communications device to receiving an acknowledgement from thesecond wireless communications device of the request, theacknowledgement comprising an identification of the second accessresource. The computer-readable medium further includes code for causingthe first wireless communications device to select the first accessresource before the transmitting the first subset of the data. Thecomputer-readable medium further includes wherein the first accessresource is selected randomly from the common pool. Thecomputer-readable medium further includes wherein copies of the commonpool and the reserved access pool are stored in a memory of the firstwireless communications device. The computer-readable medium furtherincludes code for causing the first wireless communications device tocomplete the transmitting using the second access resource, wherein thesecond subset of the data includes a remaining amount of the data. Thecomputer-readable medium further includes code for causing the firstwireless communications device to analyze a downlink message from thesecond wireless communications device prior to initiating thetransmission of the first subset of the data; code for causing the firstwireless communications device to predict a transmission metric for thetransmission of the data based at least in part of the analysis of thedownlink message; and code for causing the first wireless communicationsdevice to compare the predicted transmission metric with the thresholdto determine if the predicted transmission metric exceeds the threshold.The computer-readable medium further includes code for causing the firstwireless communications device to determine a transmission metric duringthe transmitting of the first subset of the data; code for causing thefirst wireless communications device to compare the determinedtransmission metric with the threshold during the transmitting of thefirst subset of the data to determine if the determined transmissionmetric exceeds the threshold; and code for causing the first wirelesscommunications device to include, as part of the first subset of thedata, the request for the second wireless communication device toprovide the second access resource in response to the comparing. Thecomputer-readable medium further includes wherein the common pool ofaccess resources and the reserved access pool each comprises at leastone of scrambling code/access time pairs or interleaver/access timepairs. The computer-readable medium further includes wherein the firstwireless communications device is an Internet of Everything (IOE) deviceand the second wireless communications device is a base station.

Embodiments of the present disclosure further include acomputer-readable medium having program code recorded thereon, theprogram code comprising code for causing a first wireless communicationsdevice to search a common pool of access resources to recover a firstsubset of data received from a second wireless communications deviceusing a first access resource selected from the common pool of accessresources as part of a grant-less transmission. The program code furthercomprises code for causing the first wireless communications device toreceive a request from the second wireless communications device toprovide a second access resource selected from a reserved access pool tothe second wireless communications device. The program code furthercomprises code for causing the first wireless communications device totransmit an identification of the second access resource selected fromthe reserved access pool to the second wireless communications device.The program code further comprises code for causing the first wirelesscommunications device to switch to the second access resource to recovera second subset of the data from the second wireless communicationsdevice without searching the reserved access pool.

The computer-readable medium further includes code for causing the firstwireless communications device to maintain the reserved access poolcomprising a first subset of access resources of the reserved accesspool that are available and a second subset of access resources that arenot available; and code for causing the first wireless communicationsdevice to select the second access resource from among the first subsetof access resources in response to receiving the request from the secondwireless communication device. The computer-readable medium furtherincludes code for causing the first wireless communications device totransmit the identification of the second access resource as part of anacknowledgement of the request. The computer-readable medium furtherincludes code for causing the first wireless communications device toreceive the request as part of the first subset of the data from thesecond wireless communications device. The computer-readable mediumfurther includes code for causing the first wireless communicationsdevice to receive the request using the first access resource afterreceiving at least a portion of the first subset of the data. Thecomputer-readable medium further includes wherein the common pool ofaccess resources and the reserved access pool each comprises at leastone of scrambling code/access time pairs or interleaver/access timepairs. The computer-readable medium further includes code for causingthe first wireless communications device to determine a range of accessresources to include in the common pool of access resources and in thereserved access pool. The computer-readable medium further includes codefor causing the first wireless communications device to transmit copiesof the determined common pool of access resources and the reservedaccess pool to the second wireless communications device. Thecomputer-readable medium further includes wherein the first wirelesscommunications device is a base station and the second wirelesscommunications device is a user equipment.

Embodiments of the present disclosure further include a first wirelesscommunications device comprising means for transmitting, to a secondwireless communications device, a first subset of data using a firstaccess resource selected from a common pool of access resources as partof a grant-less transmission. The first wireless communications devicefurther comprises means for requesting the second wirelesscommunications device to provide a second access resource from areserved access pool in response to a determination that the grant-lesstransmission exceeds a threshold. The first wireless communicationsdevice further comprises means for transmitting a second subset of thedata to the second wireless communications device using the secondaccess resource after transitioning to the second access resource.

The first wireless communications device further includes means forreceiving an acknowledgement from the second wireless communicationsdevice of the request, the acknowledgement comprising an identificationof the second access resource. The first wireless communications devicefurther includes means for selecting the first access resource beforethe transmitting the first subset of the data. The first wirelesscommunications device further includes wherein the first access resourceis selected randomly from the common pool. The first wirelesscommunications device further includes wherein copies of the common pooland the reserved access pool are stored in a memory of the firstwireless communications device. The first wireless communications devicefurther includes means for completing the transmitting using the secondaccess resource, wherein the second subset of the data includes aremaining amount of the data. The first wireless communications devicefurther includes means for analyzing a downlink message from the secondwireless communications device prior to initiating the transmission ofthe first subset of the data; means for predicting a transmission metricfor the transmission of the data based at least in part of the analysisof the downlink message; and means for comparing the predictedtransmission metric with the threshold to determine if the predictedtransmission metric exceeds the threshold. The first wirelesscommunications device further includes means for determining atransmission metric during the transmitting of the first subset of thedata; means for comparing the determined transmission metric with thethreshold during the transmitting of the first subset of the data todetermine if the determined transmission metric exceeds the threshold;and means for including, as part of the first subset of the data, therequest for the second wireless communication device to provide thesecond access resource in response to the comparing. The first wirelesscommunications device further includes wherein the common pool of accessresources and the reserved access pool each comprises at least one ofscrambling code/access time pairs or interleaver/access time pairs. Thefirst wireless communications device further includes wherein the firstwireless communications device is an Internet of Everything (IOE) deviceand the second wireless communications device is a base station.

Embodiments of the present disclosure further include a first wirelesscommunications device comprising means for searching a common pool ofaccess resources to recover a first subset of data received from asecond wireless communications device using a first access resourceselected from the common pool of access resources as part of agrant-less transmission. The first wireless communications devicefurther comprises means for receiving a request from the second wirelesscommunications device to provide a second access resource selected froma reserved access pool to the second wireless communications device. Thefirst wireless communications device further comprises means fortransmitting an identification of the second access resource selectedfrom the reserved access pool to the second wireless communicationsdevice. The first wireless communications device further comprises meansfor switching to the second access resource to recover a second subsetof the data from the second wireless communications device withoutsearching the reserved access pool.

The first wireless communications device further includes means formaintaining the reserved access pool comprising a first subset of accessresources of the reserved access pool that are available and a secondsubset of access resources that are not available; and means forselecting the second access resource from among the first subset ofaccess resources in response to receiving the request from the secondwireless communication device. The first wireless communications devicefurther includes means for transmitting the identification of the secondaccess resource as part of an acknowledgement of the request. The firstwireless communications device further includes means for receiving therequest as part of the first subset of the data from the second wirelesscommunications device. The first wireless communications device furtherincludes means for receiving the request using the first access resourceafter receiving at least a portion of the first subset of the data. Thefirst wireless communications device further includes wherein the commonpool of access resources and the reserved access pool each comprises atleast one of scrambling code/access time pairs or interleaver/accesstime pairs. The first wireless communications device further includesmeans for determining a range of access resources to include in thecommon pool of access resources and in the reserved access pool. Thefirst wireless communications device further includes means fortransmitting copies of the determined common pool of access resourcesand the reserved access pool to the second wireless communicationsdevice. The first wireless communications device further includeswherein the first wireless communications device is a base station andthe second wireless communications device is a user equipment.

As those of some skill in this art will by now appreciate and dependingon the particular application at hand, many modifications, substitutionsand variations can be made in and to the materials, apparatus,configurations and methods of use of the devices of the presentdisclosure without departing from the spirit and scope thereof. In lightof this, the scope of the present disclosure should not be limited tothat of the particular embodiments illustrated and described herein, asthey are merely by way of some examples thereof, but rather, should befully commensurate with that of the claims appended hereafter and theirfunctional equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for wireless communication, comprising:capturing, by an internet of everything (IOE) device, information data;transmitting, from the IOE device to a wireless communications device, afirst set of data of the captured information data using a first accessresource selected from a common pool of access resources as part of agrant-less transmission; determining, by the IOE device, to switch fromthe common pool of access resources to a reserved access pool fortransmitting a second set of data of the captured information data basedon a metric associated with a channel condition, the second set of dataincluding remaining information data to the first set of data of thecaptured information data; requesting, by the IOE device, the wirelesscommunications device to provide a second access resource from thereserved access pool for transmitting the second set of data of thecaptured information data based on the determining; and transmitting, bythe IOE device, the second set of data of the captured information datato the wireless communications device using the second access resourcefrom the reserved access pool after switching from the common pool ofaccess resources to the second access resource, wherein the common poolof access resources includes a smaller amount of access resources thanthe reserved access pool.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:receiving an acknowledgement from the wireless communications devicecomprising an identification of the second access resource.
 3. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: selecting, by the IOE device, thefirst access resource before the transmitting the first set of data,wherein the first access resource is selected randomly from the commonpool.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein: copies of the common pool andthe reserved access pool are stored in a memory of the IOE device, andthe common pool of access resources and the reserved access pool eachcomprises at least one of scrambling code/access time pairs orinterleaver/access time pairs.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein therequesting further comprises: setting a flag in a header of the firstset of data to identify the request for the second access resource. 6.The method of claim 1, wherein the metric comprises a transmissionmetric, the method further comprising: analyzing, by the IOE device, adownlink message from the wireless communications device prior toinitiating the transmission of the first set of data; predicting, by theIOE device, the transmission metric for the transmission of data basedat least in part of the analysis of the downlink message; and comparing,by the IOE device, the predicted transmission metric with a threshold todetermine if the predicted transmission metric exceeds the threshold. 7.The method of claim 1, wherein the metric comprises a transmissionmetric, the method further comprising: determining, by the IOE device,the transmission metric during the transmitting of the first set ofdata; comparing, by the IOE device, the determined transmission metricwith a threshold during the transmitting of the first set of data todetermine if the determined transmission metric exceeds the threshold;and including, as part of the first set of data, the request for thewireless communication device to provide the second access resource inresponse to the comparing.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein thewireless communications device is a base station.
 9. A method forwireless communication, comprising: searching, by a first wirelesscommunications device, a common pool of access resources to recover afirst set of data of information data captured by and received from aninternet of everything (IOE) device using a first access resourceselected from the common pool of access resources as part of agrant-less transmission; receiving, at the first wireless communicationsdevice using the first access resource, a request from the IOE device toprovide a second access resource selected from a reserved access pool tothe IOE device after receiving the first set of data based on a metricassociated with a channel condition; transmitting an identification ofthe second access resource selected from the reserved access pool to theIOE device; and switching from the common pool of access resources tothe second access resource of the reserved access pool to recover asecond set of data of the captured information data from the IOE devicewithout searching the reserved access pool, the second set of dataincluding remaining information data to the first set of data of thecaptured information data, wherein the common pool of access resourcesincludes a smaller amount of access resources than the reserved accesspool.
 10. The method of claim 9, further comprising: maintaining thereserved access pool comprising a first subset of access resources ofthe reserved access pool that are available and a second subset ofaccess resources that are not available; selecting the second accessresource from among the first subset of access resources in response toreceiving the request from the IOE device; and transmitting theidentification of the second access resource as part of anacknowledgement of the request.
 11. The method of claim 9, wherein thereceiving the request further comprises: receiving the request as partof the first set of data from the IOE device.
 12. The method of claim 9,wherein the common pool of access resources and the reserved access pooleach comprises at least one of scrambling code/access time pairs orinterleaver/access time pairs.
 13. The method of claim 9, furthercomprising: determining a range of access resources to include in thecommon pool of access resources and in the reserved access pool; andtransmitting, from the first wireless communications device, copies ofthe determined common pool of access resources and the reserved accesspool to the IOE device.
 14. The method of claim 9, wherein the firstwireless communications device is a base station and the IOE device is auser equipment.
 15. An internet of everything (IOE) device, comprising:a sensor configured to capture information data; a processor configuredto: select a first access resource from a common pool of accessresources for transmitting a first set of data of the capturedinformation data to a wireless communication device as part of agrant-less transmission to the wireless communications device; anddetermine to switch from the common pool of access resources to areserved access pool for transmitting a second set of data of thecaptured information data based on a metric associated with a channelcondition, the second set of data including remaining information datato the first set of data of the captured information data; request thewireless communications device to provide a second access resource froma reserved access pool based on the determination; and a transceiverconfigured to: transmit the first set of data of the capturedinformation data to the wireless communications device using the firstaccess resource, wherein the first set of data includes the request forthe second access resource in response to the determination; andtransmit the second set of data of the captured information data to thewireless communications device using the second access resource from thereserved access pool after switching from the common pool of accessresources to the second access resource, wherein the common pool ofaccess resources includes a smaller amount of access resources than thereserved access pool.
 16. The IOE device of claim 15, wherein thetransceiver is further configured to: receive an acknowledgement fromthe wireless communications device comprising an identification of thesecond access resource.
 17. The IOE device of claim 15, furthercomprising: a memory configured to store the common pool of accessresources and the reserved access pool, wherein the common pool ofaccess resources and the reserved access pool each comprises at leastone of scrambling code/access time pairs or interleaver/access timepairs.
 18. The IOE device of claim 15, wherein the processor is furtherconfigured to select the first access resource randomly from the commonpool.
 19. The IOE device of claim 15, wherein the processor is furtherconfigured to set a flag in a header of the first set of data toidentify the request for the second access resource.
 20. The IOE deviceof claim 15, wherein the metric comprises a transmission metric and theprocessor is further configured to: analyze a downlink message from thewireless communications device prior to initiating the transmission ofthe first set of data; predict the transmission metric for thetransmission of data based at least in part of the analysis of thedownlink message; and compare the predicted transmission metric with athreshold to determine if the predicted transmission metric exceeds thethreshold.
 21. The IOE device of claim 15, wherein the metric comprisesa transmission metric and the processor is further configured to:determine the transmission metric during the transmission of the firstset of data; compare the determined transmission metric with a thresholdduring the transmission of the first set of data to determine if thedetermined transmission metric exceeds the threshold; and include, aspart of the first set of data, the request for the wirelesscommunications device to provide to the second access resource inresponse to the comparing.
 22. The IOE device of claim 15, wherein thewireless communications device comprises a base station.
 23. A firstwireless communications device, comprising: a transceiver configured toreceive a first set of data of information data captured by and receivedfrom an internet of everything (IOE) device, wherein the first set ofdata of the captured information data is transmitted using a firstaccess resource selected from a common pool of access resources as partof a grant-less transmission from the IOE device; a resource coordinatorconfigured to search the common pool of access resources to recover thefirst set of data received from the IOE device, wherein the transceiveris further configured to receive a request from the IOE device toprovide a second access resource selected from a reserved access poolafter receiving the first set of data based on a metric associated witha channel condition and transmit an identification of the second accessresource selected from the reserved access pool to the IOE device; and aprocessor configured to switch the transceiver from the common pool ofaccess resources to the second access resource of the reserved accesspool to recover a second set of data of the captured information datafrom the IOE device without searching the reserved access pool, thesecond set of data including remaining information data to the first setof data of the captured information data, wherein the common pool ofaccess resources includes a smaller amount of access resources than thereserved access pool.
 24. The first wireless communications device ofclaim 23, wherein: the resource coordinator is further configured to:maintain the reserved access pool comprising a first subset of accessresources of the reserved access pool that are available and a secondsubset of access resources that are not available; and select the secondaccess resource from among the first subset of access resources inresponse to receiving the request from the IOE device; and thetransceiver is further configured to transmit the identification of thesecond access resource as part of an acknowledgement of the request. 25.The first wireless communications device of claim 23, wherein thetransceiver is further configured to receive the request as part of thefirst set of data from the IOE device.
 26. The first wirelesscommunications device of claim 23, wherein the common pool of accessresources and the reserved access pool each comprises at least one ofscrambling code/access time pairs or interleaver/access time pairs. 27.The first wireless communications device of claim 23, wherein: theprocessor is further configured to determine a range of access resourcesto include in the common pool of access resources and in the reservedaccess pool; and the transceiver is further configured to transmit thedetermined common pool of access resources and the reserved access poolto the IOE device.
 28. The first wireless communications device of claim23, wherein the first wireless communications device comprises a basestation.
 29. The method of claim 1, wherein the metric comprises atransmission metric, the method further comprising: analyzing, by theIOE device, the transmission metric between the IOE device and thewireless communication device; and comparing, by the IOE device, thetransmission metric to a threshold determined based on a collisionprobability in the common pool, wherein the determining is further basedon the comparing.
 30. The IOE device of claim 15, wherein the metriccomprises a transmission metric, and wherein the processor is furtherconfigured to: analyze the transmission metric between the IOE deviceand the wireless communication device; determine an expected duration tocomplete transmission of the information data based on the transmissionmetric; and compare the expected duration to a time threshold, andwherein the determination to switch from the common pool of accessresources to the reserved access pool is based on the expected durationexceeds the time threshold.